For Singer Pat Boone, People Are The Jury

He scored his last hit record in 1962, two years before the Beatles touched down on American soil.

But his Wholesomeness-Pat Boone-has yet to start worrying about going out of style.

``To everybody`s amazement, my career hasn`t withered and died. Since I wasn`t in the `in` crowd, it has flourished somehow. I think it`s almost like what President Reagan has tried to do with the electorate-go over the establishment and go directly to the people with his message. I had to do the same. And it has worked.

``I`ve always been out of style,`` he says. ``I`ve been a thorn in the side of the entertainment business for most of my career.`` He is particularly proud of his sticking power while promoting wholesome, responsible, spiritual themes.`

Indeed. Boone`s face-still youthful as he approaches 55-remains among the most recognizable in the country and, perhaps, the world.

Although the hit records quit coming 26 years ago, he has hardly been without work.

He has written a half-dozen books, mostly with Christian themes, including ``Together: 25 Years With the Boone Family,`` a scrapbook of his life with his wife, Shirley, and daughters Debby, Cherry, Lindy and Laury.

For a time in the late `70s he toured the country for a series of Boone Family concerts that also featured Debby, who had her own No. 1 hit in 1977 with ``You Light Up My Life.``

In the last several years he has been the national chairman and spokesman for the Easter Seal Society, and he and Shirley starred in their own cable TV series, ``Together: Shirley and Pat Boone,`` which aired on the CBN channel.

He has been an outspoken foe of legalized abortion and even recorded a song, ``Let Me Live,`` as an anthem to the unborn child.

Boone has his own Christian radio show, aired on more than 200 stations around the country. He, along with daughters Laury and Debby, record Christian music with a country flavor on his own label, Lion and Lamb Records, which he started several years ago. Two years ago he made an exercise video, ``Take Time With Pat Boone,`` geared for the over-40 set.

In January, he made a cameo appearance on the popular ``Moonlighting`` TV series. And he and Shirley are hosts of the Nashville Network`s ``Wish You Were Here`` RV travel show, as well as the Shop Television Network`s ``Better Shopping`` program.

This week he`s in Nashville to record an album of Bible stories-the ones he has repeated so often to his 13 grandchildren.

``I`d had the word `square` attached to me so many times I decided I should just quit flinching and trying to deny I`m a square and say, `yes,`

proudly, that I am.

``What I realized was that things ;that are often spoken of derisively or laughingly by folks in show biz, who consider themselves so hip and so cool, are the things that make the world go round and tie society together-family and picnics and loyalty and Boy Scouts and Girl hScouts, all those things the comedians make fun of.``

Boone is not only a square but also an outspoken square. When asked his opinion, he doesn`t talk around the subject to avoid offending people, as so many of his peers do.

Of the rock star Prince, Boone says, ``He has terrific creativity, terrific talent, but where does it lead? I could almost compare him to a Rembrandt doing pornography on the bathroom wall.``

Of everyone`s favorite country girl, Dolly Parton, he says, ``People are fascinated by Dolly, but I don`t think she`ll wear well over the long run because there`s a dichotomy there. The two things she`s trying to do don`t work together, and they alienate each other. You can`t be a madam and a good ol` downhome country girl at the same time.``

The Irish rock band U2, curiously, is more to Boone`s liking. ``I believe they are deeply religious. . . . I`m not familiar with all their m;usic, but I don`t think they`re promoting drugs or promiscuity or irresponsible lifestyles. They live responsible lives, from what I`ve seen and heard.``

Boone`s own career has been spotless, right down to his trademark, white buck shoes.

He credits his wholesomeness to his upbringing in Nashville, where his parents, Archie and Margaret Moore, stressed the importance of God and family and singing in the church choir on Sunday.

In seven years with Dot Records, Boone had 38 Top-40 hits, including six that were No. 1. His greatest success as a singer came in 1957, with the release of ``April Love`` and ``Love Letters in the Sand.``

He has been married for more hthan 30 years to Shirley Foley Boone, daughter of the late singer Red Foley. Although they moved to a home in Beverly Hills, Calif., 28 years ago, the Boones reared their four girls by

``Tennessee standards,`` he says.

If Dick Clark is the world`s oldest teenager, then the equally youthful Boone is the world`s oldest teen idol.